This collection contains 18th and 19th-century judicial proceedings, letters, newspapers, and other documents cited in Professor Eric M. Freedman’s works on the law of habeas corpus. His articles on this topic are linked below, and the book Making Habeas Work: A Legal History can be purchased at https://nyupress.org/books/9781479870974/. Many of the materials contained in this collection have not been digitized and are not available in any electronic resource. The original materials are available only in the archives and courthouses where they were discovered. Prof. Freedman made copies of these sources, and the purpose of this Special Collection is to make these documents available to scholars and the general public.

This is a work in progress. Please contact Tricia Kasting at lawpak@hofstra.edu for assistance with access to documents not yet included in the collection.